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Glad Tidings from Heaven
By admin | March 4, 2009
We don’t often hear about Welsh Puritanism, and this is to our loss. There was a strong and useful Puritan movement in Wales, developing into Independent and even Particular Baptist churches. One of the leaders of that movement was the clergymen Walter Cradock (fl. 1640s-1659). Here is a sample of Crdock’s powerful gospel preaching:
Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
“The word gospel is the old English word God-spel, that is, good speech, good news, good hearing, good tidings; and in a peculiar sense in Scripture, it is taken for the good tidings of grace; and salvation by, Jesus Christ.
In the Old Testament there was a little gospel in the prophecies, and gospel in the sacrifices, and gospel in the visions, but law mingled with the gospel, In the New Testament, especially after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, when he went up to heaven, there was perfect gospel or only good news and glad tidings, for the bad news were now all gone. And so it is to be understood here, ‘Go preach the gospel’ As if He should say, ‘ I do not bid you go and give them, now good news and then bad, a little of the law and a little of the gospel but go preach the gospel emphatically, that which is merely, purely gospel; for now Christ is risen, and the gospel in its purity and simplicity is erected.’
‘Preach the gospel to every creature,’ saith Christ. That is, I will now have no distinction of persons. I do not now say, Take heed of the way of the Samaritans; but go which way you will; go to the Gentiles, to sinners, to any man or woman that you call creatures, barbarians, Scythians, bond ot free; go and preach the gospel to them; bring them glad tidings, that Jesus Christ hath brought life, and grace, and salvation freely for them. So that I come to this lesson, ‘that the ministry of the gospel contains nothing but glad tidings, good news even to the worst of sinners.’
Creatures that were so bad that they could not be called men and women, yet glad tidings are to be preached to them, saith Christ. The ministry of the gospel, if rightly dispensed, doth not contain a little of good news in it, but perfect good news to the heart of the worst of sinners. For this is the proper difference between the law and the gospeL The law speaks good news only to the righteous—’If thou doest well, thou shall be rewarded.’ It speaks well to the righteous man, as a righteous man. But the gospel is quite contrary. The proper object of all the good that the gospel brings, is to a man as a sinner; not as a regenerate man, or a righteous man, or a humble man—but as a sinner. And here is the excellency of the gospel—the more sinful any man is, the more suitable the gospel is to him; the more sin abounds, grace abounds much more; therefore, you read that they that had the benefit of the gospel are they that are called ungodly—’He justifieth the ungodly.’ They are called ‘aliens, strangers, enemies, without strength, the chief of sinners.’ Thus to enemies, aliens, strangers, lost ones, unrighteous, ungodly, and the like, the gospel brings perfect good news—glad tidings of life, and grace, and salvation, by Jesus Christ.
The gospel holds forth to poor sinners that there is a love, an eternal love, an infinite love, in God’s breast to them. A man might think that God would hate such an one as I am; and reason would think that love should proceed from something amiable in the object, some beauty or bounty; but God sees me to be wicked and sinful, and therefore reason would think that God must damn me, world without end. The gospel comes to such a sinner, and tells him that the case is otherwise. It is not so, poor sinful man or woman; and though God hates sin above all things in heaven or hell, yet God loved thee, knowing what thou wert. God hath an infinite, special love to thy poor soul, yet hates thy sin: ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.’ There was a love in God, out of which He gave His Son Jesus Christ to die for us. This, the gospel, and the Spirit of God in it, reveals to the poor soul—’ When I was an enemy to God, He was my friend; when I hated Him, He loved me; nay, before I was, God had thoughts of an infinite, eternal love to me.’
The gospel holds forth to a sinner, that as God had an infinite love towards him, so it was not a cold love that ended in nothing; but out of this love God would send His Son Jesus Christ into the world to save sinners. This is one of the main principles of the gospel, that the Father out of His love sent His own Son, the image of His person, the Son of His love and delight, into this world, to lay down His life for sinners.
It holds out to us that as the Father out of His love sent the Son, so Jesus Christ actually and really is come into the world and took our nature upon Him, soul and body, and the infirmities of both, and sanctified our nature that He took, and in that nature became our surety, a public person for us, an advocate, a second Adam. All these are good news to poor sinners, every part of them.
Then the gospel tells you that Jesus Christ, as He died for our sins, so He rose again for our justification; whereby poor sinners are assured that they are justified and freed from all their sins, and whereby they shall rise to grace here and to glory hereafter. Every tittle of this is glad tidings to poor sinners.
Then the gospel tells you that, after His resurrection, He conversed with His disciples, giving them instructions how they should order the churches of God, and preach the gospel to the end of the world; that He went up into heaven, and as soon as He came there, sent His Holy Spirit to us to unite us to Himself, to be our intelligencer, to make known the heart of Christ to us, to lead us into all truth, and comfort us in all distresses; that when He went up to heaven, He made way for poor sinners to come there, and that there He intercedes for us, and succours us, and pities us, who are in the flesh as He once was; that in due time He will come again from heaven as He went, and bring a crown with Him, and subdue all His people’s enemies, and give them the same glory that He hath. The gospel tells you, moreover, that all this love, and grace, and mercy, and salvation, by Jesus Christ, here and in heaven, is made sure to us by an everlasting covenant, sure and perfect in every point. Put all together, and from the first to the last, you shall not find in the ministry of the gospel, if it be truly and soundly opened, any syllable but what is wholesome and comfortable, and sweet and glad tidings to the worst sinners.
When the gospel commands anything, it doth not bid you do them, or else you shall be damned, as the law did, but the gospel saith thus — Thou poor drunkard, or thou proud woman, here ia a gracious God that hath loved you, and hath sent Jesus Christ to die for you; here is everlasting redemption and salvation by Him, just because you are sinners, and for no other reason in the world. Thus the gospel speaks. And these are no bad news to hear of my duty — to hear that the Lord Jesus Christ commands me — when I see salvation sure. I work not for life as those under the law, for the law is a ‘voice of words’ (Heb. xii. 10). So I see salvation is sure, hell and damnation shut out, God my Father, and I his child. I am in an everlasting covenant, and there is nothing in heaven or hell that shall be able to separate me from the love of God. Now I am redeemed from mine enemies, and without fear, as the Scripture saith, why should I not serve Him, and study to do what He commands me? When the gospel bids thee do, it gives thee power to do. It is not a voice of words, as that on Mount Sinai. That had a voice, but gave no power. It gave no strength, and the people were not able to hear the word. But the voice of the gospel is a voice of power. Therefore, whatever the gospel commands, it gives a sweet power to the heart to do the same; and then it is no bad news. If a man bid me pay a thousand pounds to my neighbour, and give me a thousand pounds in my hand, it is easy to do it.
Some man will say, the gospel, for the most part, brings good news; but then it is only if I believe. To answer this —if the gospel held forth Christ and salvation only to those that believe, it were little better tidings than the law. But the gospel saith not, Bring faith with thee, and then here is all and salvation. No; the gospel expects not that any sinner should of himself bring faith, for he hath it not. But the gospel, as it brings salvation, so it breeds faith in the heart of a sinner. The same word that makes known salvation, begets faith in the heart to receive it. The God that gives His alms, gives a purse to carry it. Therefore, when I hear of grace, and glory, and salvation, by Jesus Christ, I must not consider where I shall have a vessel to carry it home—where 1 shall have faith to receive it; but it carries the vessel with it. and I go and take the promise; and by the Holy Spirit that same gospel that brought the grace will work faith, or else it were as harsh as the law. Therefore, never stand off about faith; for He that gives grace and salvation will work faith (Eph. ii. 8).
This, then, is the door of the gospel, the very entrance into Christian religion, the first stone in the Christian building. There is a kind of devotion and profession; but it is not built according to the gospel. If you would walk according to the gospel, learn this lesson first, that God gives life and salvation through Christ to sinners as sinners. Though they be hardhearted, backsliding, the chief of sinners, yet, as long as they be sinners, and but sinners, they may always look upon Jesus Christ, and salvation in His hand ready to be bestowed upon them. This is a truth that thou must learn, and be taught it of God, or else thou canst not go one step into the profession of the gospel; for, beloved, till you know and learn this, you will be like men in the dark, you will be groping for Christ Jesus, but you will never be grafted into Him, you will never be knit to Christ.
Topics: Calvinism, Doctrines of Grace, Evangelism, Gospel, Law and Gospel, Means of Grace, Pastoral Ministry, Preaching, Puritanism, Puritans, Reformed Theology | Comments Off
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